The present invention relates to server consolidations.
Server consolidation is an approach to the efficient usage of computer server resources in order to reduce the total number of servers or server locations that an organization requires. The practice developed in response to the problem of server sprawl, a situation in which multiple, under-utilized servers take up more space and consume more resources than can be justified by their workload. When servers are consolidated, physical servers with low utilization loads are often virtualized and consolidated as virtual machines running on a set of physical servers.
Although consolidation can substantially increase the efficient use of server resources, it may also result in complex configurations of data, applications, and servers that can be confusing. Analysis tools/applications exist that help Information Technology (IT) administrators plan and efficiently implement a consolidation of an IT environment. Many consolidation choices are tradeoffs, where choices that optimize a consolidation effort for one set of factors have a negative impact on a different set of factors.
With a current rise in cloud computing, Web services, middleware platforms, and other network-based technologies—server consolidations become increasingly important and complex. Conventional analysis and planning tools have not adapted sufficiently to handle the increased complexities required of server farms in an information technology environment where cloud-computing is commonplace. That is, conventional analysis and planning tools are imperfect in that they fail to account for significant factors that strongly impact overall costs in a server-farm/middleware. For example, most consolidation analysis and planning tools fail to consider application level factors.